Danielle Smiley

Danielle Smiley

Matt Sturdevant Hartford Courant

"I didn't have insurance. I couldn't stay on my parents' insurance. I would suffer with it until I couldn't suffer with it anymore. At that time, they would give me a breathing tube. They would prescribe me Prednisone or some sort of Albuterol emergency inhaler, which was fine when they gave it to me. But then after that, I had no insurance to get the prescription to prevent the asthma attack. It was awful, and I don't think people who never had to feel that truly understand." Danielle Smiley, 34, a WIC program nutritionist for the City of Hartford who said she wished the reform laws were in place when she was a 23-year-old college student suffering from chronic asthma.

"I didn't have insurance. I couldn't stay on my parents' insurance. I would suffer with it until I couldn't suffer with it anymore. At that time, they would give me a breathing tube. They would prescribe me Prednisone or some sort of Albuterol emergency inhaler, which was fine when they gave it to me. But then after that, I had no insurance to get the prescription to prevent the asthma attack. It was awful, and I don't think people who never had to feel that truly understand." Danielle Smiley, 34, a WIC program nutritionist for the City of Hartford who said she wished the reform laws were in place when she was a 23-year-old college student suffering from chronic asthma. (Matt Sturdevant Hartford Courant)

"I didn't have insurance. I couldn't stay on my parents' insurance. I would suffer with it until I couldn't suffer with it anymore. At that time, they would give me a breathing tube. They would prescribe me Prednisone or some sort of Albuterol emergency inhaler, which was fine when they gave it to me. But then after that, I had no insurance to get the prescription to prevent the asthma attack. It was awful, and I don't think people who never had to feel that truly understand." Danielle Smiley, 34, a WIC program nutritionist for the City of Hartford who said she wished the reform laws were in place when she was a 23-year-old college student suffering from chronic asthma.